They kept moving further into the complex. It was a huge place, but Faren seemed to know where he was going.
“Not many places to hide and even less that could be defended,” he told her when he saw her looking around with a puzzled look.
Something occurred to Leiya.
“Is it true?” she asked. “The saying ‘It’s too easy’? I expected they’d at least fight you.”
“They’re afraid of the general, of course,” someone answered her, but the last words were so quiet Leiya barely heard them.
Faren’s eyes were sending daggers at the warrior.
“I don’t need to be flattered,” he growled. “And she’s right. Primen is throwing his men away, wanting us to be rash. Something is coming.”
Even that didn’t bother Leiya as much as it should have. Her mind was already on the Unbroken, on Faren’s huge bed and his enormous…
Um, she thought. I wish I had time to read over some of the more graphic fan mail before I get in his bed. Gods, I don’t know what I to do, I don’t want to just lie there like a…
All thoughts and all words were washed from her never-quiet mind. They’d entered a large room, a hangar or a training facility of sorts. Primen hadn’t even bothered to defend it. He was in plain sight in the other end, surrounded by the first group of sell-swords that even remotely resembled Faren’s men.
The general stopped, and after a signal from him, his men did as well, weapons still trained at their enemies. Leiya kept walking, her mouth opening and closing as she searched for words.
“Leiya,” she heard Faren warn her.
The voice of her gerion finally brought her back to reality. She froze in her steps, staring wide-eyed at Primen and the man who had protected her all of her life until Faren had taken over. The same man that had taken her from Terra and brought her to her new home.
“Father…” she whispered, her eyes never leaving the glinting, sharp edge of the spear on her father’s throat.
Senator Primen stepped forward, a small, insane smile playing on his lips – the look of a true madman.
“I keep losing, it seems,” he said.
His voice was nothing like it had once been, the strong and soft timbre of a true politician. It was wavering now. It wasn’t hard to believe something had snapped in him when he realized he’d unleashed Briolina’s bloodiest hound on himself.
“My only victory seems to be not dying on Rhea. I escaped that, but it was really a loss in disguise. You know that, General. You made it all possible.”
Faren didn’t reply, looking at her out of the corner of his eye. Leiya couldn’t decipher the gaze, but her heart started pounding so loudly she could hear it thrumming in her ears.
“And it’s not like I don’t know I’m no match for you,” Primen said.
There was a perverse pleasure in his tone, like it was satisfying to believe he had the moral high ground.
“A beast like you. I’d be less than a training exercise to the mighty general. So, you know, I thought I’d at least get to deal you a wound. Can you imagine? Hurting you. I’ve heard plenty of people say that it’s impossible, but I knew it wasn’t true from the moment I saw you at the reception. The little bitch has bared your throat at last.”
The flash of light from Faren’s valor squares almost blinded her with its intensity. Words got caught in her throat, when all she wanted was to say anything, anything to stop him from…
“But your little whore got away. You can imagine how mad I was. You’re a warrior, you understand. To be denied the chance to do even a little damage before being defeated. Unfair, isn’t it?”
Faren’s eyes were so cold now that Leiya shivered just seeing them. Still no words. No words to say “Please don’t be everything you are or he’ll kill my father” and make it stick somehow. Even if she was still mad, even if she would make her father answer many questions once they got out of there, she didn't want him to die.
She couldn't have the only family she'd ever known taken from her. There was no way he could leave her alone now when she needed him the most, even if he was to blame for it too.
She knew what Faren was going to do, it was so obvious. She hated it. From bad to worse to impossible – Leiya was going to know what she truly meant to her gerion. She was going to be measured against the pride of the Monster of Briolina.
“Unfair it was,” Primen said, and his eyes caught Leiya’s just for a moment before looking at Faren again, still just standing there. “But I had thought of that. So I laid one last safety net for myself. Not a big wound to you, I’m sure. You’re not known for weeping for senators. But a wound to our little star for sure. It’s not perfect, but it’ll have to do.”#p#分页标题#e#
There had been nothing but insanity in his eyes from the moment they’d stepped in, but then it crept into his words as well.
“So if you don’t want the little bitch to cry every time she looks at you,” he said, reveling in every word, “send your men back to your ship, drop your weapons, and plead for his life.”
Life flashed before Leiya’s eyes as her gerion slowly drew his ax.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Faren
His gesha was screaming.
Her tiny hands were wrapped around his, which were holding the ax outstretched before him, aimed at Senator Primen’s heart. The starlet was nearly hanging on his arm, but she couldn’t do anything to make him lower his weapon if he didn’t want it to happen.
Faren couldn’t remember his world so filled with sounds before.
Leiya’s breathless, heart-broken pleas were the only really audible ones. His warriors stood silently behind him, both discipline and shock rendering them mute. The words “bitch” and “whore” thundered in his head so loudly he could nearly see them dance before his eyes. To have a traitor, a worthless bastard whose every breath was an insult to him, speak like that of Leiya…
His rage was so great it gave him a headache. In all his life, Faren couldn’t remember his blood boiling like that, not even in the heart of battle. The only occasion that came close was when he and Diego had hunted their treacherous brothers in the mountains of Rhea.
Compared to Primen, even their betrayal seemed like a lesser offense to him.
All other sounds were drowned out and blurred by the rushing in his ears, threatening to take his sanity. His hand was shaking, another something that had never happened before. Not because of Leiya’s weight trying to pull the blade down but out of sheer unrestrained fury.
Yet he was still Faren. The fury was wild within, but he refused to let it spill into the world until he chose to allow it.
He looked away from Primen. The thought of the senator taking it for a sign of weakness was unbearable. Giving that son of a bitch the tiniest sliver of satisfaction… Only he was doing just that, second by second, by not moving. He had to look away. The temptation to kill him was sweet and coppery on his tongue, tasting like blood. There was real blood in his mouth; he’d had to bite into his cheek so as not to roar at Primen’s words.
No one who had talked to him like that had ever lived to say another word. And there Primen was, still drawing breath. Still smiling, like it was a victory for him already, and Faren knew it partly was.
Primen was standing out of cover, certain that he’d be able to hide behind his warriors, or pull up a shield, or just flee. All of those were misconceptions. In his mind’s eye, Faren could see a dozen ways to kill his enemy before he even realized death was coming to him.
The force and the speed with which Faren could throw his ax were beyond lesser warriors throwing their spears. Primen could be dead in a second. Or even better, just horribly wounded, with the weapon lodged into his chest inches from cutting him down.
The monster in him hungered for it. It longed to see the senator clawing at the ax with his weak hands, trying to dislodge the deadly blade that was the only thing keeping him alive. He’d let the traitor struggle, hear his gargled attempts to breathe through his collapsing lungs… and then step to pull the ax free.
There would be a perfect moment of helpless gratitude in Primen’s eyes, thinking Faren had forgiven him, that he aimed to help. Only to realize a moment later the ax had been blocking most of his blood from coloring the floor crimson.
Faren shook his head clear of the delicious image. He couldn’t, he wouldn’t, let fury cloud his mind. Never before had it happened to him, not even when Gawen had met his end at the hands of their best friend. It would not happen now, when he was faced with the two worst options anyone could ever present him with.
Instead of Primen, he looked at Leiya’s father, aware that no one had dared to breathe in the last minute when he’d remained silent. Only Leiya spoke, begging him not to let her father die.
It was a grim reminder of his reputation. There his gesha was, pleading for someone as dear to her as her own life – that much was obvious. And yet she didn’t dare suggest that he obey the traitor. After everything, Leiya still thought he was a monster fueled by his pride.
It was true, after all. They said a Brion warrior consisted of two parts strength and skill, and one part pride and honor.